Folks who read this blog but haven’t visited Cape May might get the impression that Higbee Beach WMA is the only place where good morning flights can be observed here, but that is far, far from the truth. In reality, just about any area along the shore of Cape May Point can be productive if conditions are right, which of course includes places like the HawkWatch at the State Park and the South Cape May Meadows (and that’s not even getting into spots further up along the Delaware Bayshore). Higbee is usually the best place to because the elevation provided by the dike affords a canopy-level vantage as well repeated, wonderfully close views on good days (which is why it’s the site of the official count).
But clearly Higbee was not the place to be today. The flight was scattered and messy, with half as many Yellow Warblers moving north as there were ones going south. Despite this, the morning had a few nice moments. An uptick of American Redstarts from singles to handfuls was nice (lots more on the way!), and we added Louisiana Waterthrush, Prairie Warbler, and Ovenbird to the official count today. A lone White-rumped Sandpiper and three northbound juvenile Red-bellied Woodpeckers were good bonus birds as well.
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Even in harsh light, it's possible to see the paler wing bar of American Redstart.
Add a long, club-shaped tail, a slender profile, and a sweet fight call, and you've got an AMRE!
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But over at the east dune of the South Cape May Meadows, Tom Reed, this fall’s Migration Count Coordinator, was also counting morning flight, and what a great morning he had! 4-5 Louisiana Waterthrushes, 18 Northern Waterthrushes, two Dickcissels, 46 Chimney Swift, nearly 300 Barn Swallows, Sandwich Tern….it pains me to see his totals, but I take solace that someone was there to collect the data in the first place. You can check out TR’s Trektellen totals here and his eBird checklist with photos here.
So this raises an obvious question: why were way more birds moving past the Meadows, but not Higbee? Did they decide to stop and refuel on Cape May Point rather than swing back north along the bayshore? Or did they decide to keep migrating south over the Delaware Bay? Some of both? It’s never quite so cut and dry when dealing with living, breathing organisms, especially migratory ones that face an complex array of choices that they must make along their journeys (watching warblers “change their minds” in midair over the dike is always entertaining, and it raises all sorts of questions).
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| And that's saying nothing of the fascinating antagonistic behavior that so often happens in morning flight. |
It all just goes to show how much there still is to learn about visible migration, even in Cape May. The good news it that I think we managed to learn a little more today, which is all we can ask for.
As always, you can find the link to the official count on Trektellen here and the complete eBird checklist here. More photos from this morning below.
Bring on Day 6!
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| An Eastern Cicada Killer Helper kindly assists a cicada to a good singing tree. Definitely what happened. |
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